The challenge of performing Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett's plays are notorious for putting actors in uncomfortable situations. In Endgame, for example, the Nobel prize winning Irish writer has two of his characters in dustbins. In Happy Days one actor is up to her neck in earth, unable to move. But when he wrote Not I, a one-woman play, he insisted the actor be up in the air on a blacked-out stage with only her mouth illuminated. She's also meant to speak as quickly as possible. Beckett created Not I for his favourite actor and muse Billie Whitelaw, who first performed it in 1973. She's now 80 and has been coaching young Irish actor Lisa Dwan, who has made the demanding role her own. Fiona Gruber caught up with Lisa at the recent Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festivalin Northern Ireland, a new annual event dedicated to the writer.

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Comments (2)

Mary :

Allan :

12 Feb 2014 11:39:00pm

I saw this recently at the Royal Court. Lisa Dwan was astonishing. I came out after less than an hour, shaken and tearful. An extraordinary evening. I wish I had another 10 years on top of what I have left so I could remember so special a night for so much longer!!